Day Four: Pompeii and Naples

My favorite guide Rick Steves recommended a side trip from Rome to Naples and Pompeii for a day, so, as we had seen all of the major sights, Sean and I decided to take his advice. We took a train at 8:30 in the morning from Rome direct to Naples, which took about two and a half hours. Once we got in to Naples, we took a commuter train to Pompeii, which took about 30 minutes. The train drops you off pretty much right in front of the ruins, so, in we went! Pompeii was a middle class city about 2000 years ago... until Mt. Vesuvius blew her top (sort of similar to Mt. St. Helens). When this happened, the whole city was covered in ash, killing pretty much everyone and everything there. The city has been 75% uncovered, and a lot of it is actually still in tact. Crazy when you think about it!


City Street in Pompeii


Mt. Vesuvius in the distance... thankfully, she was calm on the day we were there. :)


This was crazy... when the site was being excavated, they detected hollows beneath the ash. Turns out it was the cavity where bodies had de-composed. They filled the cavity with plaster, and then when that dried, took the plaster out. Amazing to have captured people 2000 years ago in their last moments... and kind of spooky.


Ancient street, complete with ruts from all the chariot traffic (seriously!)

We spent about two hours there, and, after that, combined with all the ruins we had seen the day before, we were pretty ruined out! And... hungry!!! We stopped for a quick meal, where we totally got scammed into a 12 euro caprese salad, and then made our way back to Naples. Which is the home of pizza. And scary. Very scary. In contrast with Rome, Naples was louder. Naples was dirtier. Naples was sleazier. I think it must be the breeding ground for Godfathers in the Making. Seriously. I kept my purse close beside me all day. I was happy to return to Rome.


Beautiful statue of Dante... covered by grafiti on the bottom! Rome had a major clean-up in 2000, so most of the grafiti was gone... but it was EVERYWHERE in Naples. Sad to see such beautiful things "re-beautified"


Town gate... so the town did had some pretty spots. What you don't see are all the vagrants that were also hanging out around here. Scary!



The highlight of my Naples visit... Galleria Umberto. I have no idea what this was... although I think it's a mall because there were lots of shops inside. All I know is it was absolutely gorgeous inside.


Pizza at the train station... we had to have ONE piece before we got the heck out of Naples!

We arrived back to Rome around 11, had a gelato, and then went to bed... we needed to rest up for our next adventure... Florence is coming up next! :)